A communication system typically needs to be managed by multiple management systems which often use different management protocols in order to communicate with the communication system (often referred to as a multi-protocol environment). The management protocols are used to manage the entities of which the communication system is composed. Each management protocol has a specific, inherent information model that arranges the entities of which the communication system is composed. The information models of respective management protocols differ, often significantly, for different management protocols (i.e., hierarchy and granularity of managed entities may differ significantly).
Existing communications systems employing multi-protocol frameworks typically use an internal representation that is based upon an information model (commonly referred to as a Management Information Base (MIB)) that is compatible with Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Such SNMP-compatible information models are typically defined by standardization bodies. Disadvantageously, however, such an SNMP-compatible information model typically cannot fully match the internal architecture of the associated communication system. Furthermore, such an SNMP-compatible information model enforces a common information model for all management protocols used by the management system, regardless of whether or not all of the management protocols are compatible with or can easily be adapted to the SNMP-compatible information model.